?Chapter 1166:


    Her steady gaze followed Chris as he crawled from the box, and her eyes were so clear they reminded him of a mountainke.


    “Were you here with your mother or father? I only guessed you weren’t alone, but thankfully those men didn’t push too hard.”


    That mysterious girl turned out to be Maia from his childhood. All that running had left Chris weak, and his stomach ached with hunger after an entire day without food.


    “Let’s go find something to eat.”


    With a bright smile, she reached out and held his hand.


    From that moment, Maia became his rescuer, sharing a simple meal with him and keeping himpany while he waited for his mother to return. At one point, Chris asked her name, and she introduced herself as Maia Morgan.


    Her parents, she exined, were often absent and hardly paid her any attention, so she spent her days wandering on her own. That was why she had been there to notice him hiding in the box just before those threatening men appeared.


    Memories jumped ahead,nding on the day Chris came back from living overseas.


    After years of searching, he had finally stumbled across a clue that led him straight to Maia. However, when his eyes found her, she wasn’t alone — she walked alongside a boy, with another girl keeping pace beside them.


    Fingers curled into a fist, Chris held himself back, unwilling to step in and reveal his longing. From the roadside, he simply stood there, silent, watching Maia move past as if she belonged to another world.


    “Vince, do you have time tomorrow? I’d like to visit the library and look for books on fashion design.”


    “I can’t make it tomorrow. My father wants me at a banquet.”


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    “Then I’ll go with you, Maia. I’m free, and I’d love to join,” the other girl said.


    Together, the three of them continued down the street, while Maia never once realized Chris was there.


    That encounter marked only the second time he had crossed paths with Maia.


    At that time, she was still the Morgan family’s beloved daughter, engaged to Vince, the heir of the Ward family.


    In contrast, Chris bore the weight of being the Cooper Group’s unwanted illegitimate son.


    At that time, Chris felt that he and Maia seemed to belong to two different worlds.


    Remembering the saying that true love sometimes means stepping aside for another’s happiness, Chris chose to bless Maia from afar. He walked away from Wront and threw himself into building his own power, determined to one day seek justice for his parents.


    By what felt like a twist of fate, news of Maia reached him during a party.


    No longer celebrated as the Morgan family’s treasure, she had been reduced to the status of their adopted daughter and even thrown into prison on charges of stealing jewels from Radiant Jewels.


    Although society condemned Maia as a thief, Chris couldn’t bring himself to ept it. He waited patiently for her release, hoping to arrange a chance meeting that might allow them to reconnect.


    Instead, the unexpected happened when Zoey called him, saying that he must marry a woman.


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